Ok so there is **ONE** thing I really appreciated about the last boarding barn, that is proving to be just slightly tricky in my new horsey world order:
The farm was big enough that we had 2 (at one point, 3) farriers who came every week, each with a specific day. Obvi most boarders were regular clients of one or the other, but it was understood that either could handle tasks like replacing lost shoes, etc for anyone.
finally remembered i picked up these boots for charlie during his abscess apocalypse...
All boarders had to do was add their horse's name to the 'board,' and everything would magically be done!
Well. Not everything, and not magically lol bc over the years some things kinda started getting lost... like invoicing --- used to be that the charge would be added to your board bill, plus a convenience fee. But the farm's bookkeeping fell apart literal years ago ((whoops!)), so it was best to pay the farriers directly.
they were the wrong size for charlie, but are just right for doozy! i pulled out all the extra foam padding tho
Regardless, tho, it was a pretty streamlined and easy system, and you were only ever a few days away from having a farrier imminently onsite. Plus there was a staff member (who remembers Charlie's groom from the covid lockdown?) who would hold for the farrier (again for a small fee). So it really was as easy as could be.
shoe freshly reset, now just hold onto it for another week lady!
Considering both my horses are now at different farms, and each with different farriers, and EACH MANAGING TO THROW SHOES ON THE SAME DAYS... Well. Ahem. It's almost enough to make me wanna go back haha. Almost... (not really tho).
charlie's turn! we're gonna give these glue-on Hantons a chance for a cycle or two
It's just been a tough season. We were so dry for so long, then suddenly very wet. And now getting dry again, but with tons more grass out of nowhere... Horses everywhere around here are just walking out of shoes. In a way it's kinda reassuring that it's happening to both my horses -- at different places, with different farriers -- bc that definitely supports the whole "it's the environment, stupid!" hypothesis.**
(**I guess you could say the owner is another commonality in both cases... but I prefer to blame the environment haha!)
it's honestly a nifty little system!
Anyway. I dug up an old Easyboot Cloud that I bought new from consignment a while ago for Charlie, but that was the wrong size and that I never got around to selling. Fortunately it seems right for Doozy so she got to have a little extra protection waiting to get the shoe reset.
Tho I pulled out the giant inch thick foam padding that comes with the boot, since it's technically designed for a foundering or laminitic horse, and that's a bit more than Doozy needed.
it's basically just quick set epoxy, and covers way less surface area than traditional glue-ons
The farrier was having a bit of a chaotic week (again, horses walking out of their shoes everywhere, plus he had some unexpected vet issues with his dog, who I believe is ok but just needed more appointments and you know how that goes), so he just reset Doozy's missing shoe, and replaced a nail on her other.
Fingers crossed we make it without drama to the originally scheduled appointment next week for her to get a full trim!
charlie liked sniffing the glue lol
Charlie, tho... Well. Idk. He lost BOTH front shoes (again, recall he got Big Mad that I left town without him), and was looking just raggedy enough that we decided to try a cycle or two of glue-on shoes.
Like... Could we have nailed regular shoes on? Yea, probably. But, eh, this is a thing we haven't tried yet, so why not??
and self-service munchies, obvi
Plus we'd love for him to stay on the same shoeing cycle as another barn mate to make it more worth the farrier's time. That original appt was scheduled for next week, so hopefully Charlie can eke out an extra week with the glue-ons and get back onto the same cycle as the other horse next time.
still some nastiness in that abscess on his RH
We shall see, I guess! He still looks a little sad and gimpy after getting shod... tho not nearly as bad as last summer.
farrier advised flushing + painting with iodine to toughen it up
That abscess from a couple weeks ago on his hind foot still looks atrocious tho. It's been almost two weeks since we stopped wrapping it, but the farrier wants me to keep treating with iodine to help it toughen up faster.
oh charles, you are never satisfied <3
Charlie doesn't seem particularly sore or sensitive on it any more -- esp compared to how much it bugged him at first. But ya know. It can never just be easy with this horse!
seems to like his new field buddy tho <3
So we'll see. I'm expecting Doozy to be a little ouchie on the foot for another day or two, but hopefully we can ease right back on into a regular routine. Fall season is almost upon us and I'd love to get out and do some fun stuff!
And I'll keep you posted on the Hanton shoes too -- and lmk if you've tried them! My hope is that Charlie will feel like they're just special + expensive enough for him to feel like he's getting the respect he deserves LOL....
Back in May when it became apparent we'd be moving farms, I'm not gonna lie to y'all... I was a bit, hm. Nervous.
my sweet little wine grape <3
Probably not unlike a lot of you who have dealt with horses for years, lived through all manner of experiences, I felt reasonably confident and secure in my abilities and knowledge. I was surrounded by peers who have been shoulder to shoulder with me through all the ups and downs over the years.
really can't overstate how dry it got in june and july, these two ladies picked this paddock clean in just a few weeks
But it kinda struck me that... Ya know. Going into a new place, a new community that maybe wasn't so familiar with me, or my perception of myself... That it was realistic to expect folks to make first impressions based on what was presented to them.
but just a little rainfall (thanks Debbie!) and suddenly we're growing again!
Which... If you recall back to May... Included a horse and rider who couldn't realistically trot around a circle without a non-zero degree of chaos.
and then omg the two moved into a smaller but rested + luscious paddock!
Maybe in a way it was exactly the reality check I needed. Like. Yea ok, we are kind of ridiculous. But... Eh, I didn't buy Doozy to be perfect, or to go win all the horse show ribbons, or jump giant jumps. I bought her to learn with, to keep developing myself along with her.
knock me over with a feather, but the folks at this farm love mowing haha!
Moving farms kinda stripped away a lot of my crutches... But also maybe some of my mental blocks too. It won't surprise any of you to learn that I can seriously overthink even the most basic activity. Which ring should we ride in, what time will it be, who else will be there, what impact will that have on Doozy...
oooh. we also went to more dressage lessons <3 <3
I'd gotten maybe a little reliant on thinking we couldn't do certain things alone or without help from other riding buddies... That everything had to be curated and set up just right.
had to stop the presses tho bc #cat
And idk. Maybe there was some truth to that. Some of the more toxic qualities of the last place definitely created some unpleasant outcomes for my rides with Doozy.
shocker, did more simple gymnastics at home -- both solo and with trainer Kelly
But. Eh. Since moving to the new place, the entire paradigm has shifted... and also basically just simplified. The horse needs ridden. Ideally daily. So... Go do it.
until it's boring, amirite??
If I didn't want to be the eccentric new (and possibly over-horsed) boarder, for whom "trotting a circle" was questionable.... Well. Go practice and make it better. Every day.
ooooh we did add in that green panel jump top left too -- with no placing poles!!
And for fucks sake, get serious about getting REAL help --- lessons. Routine, regularly scheduled sessions with professionals who can provide that structure for me.
flashback to last Dom lesson -- jumping without placing poles haha srsly tho look how much stronger she's gotten behind!
And guys, Doozy is basically thriving. She's always been a trier. She's always "colored inside the lines," so to speak.
the schweetest critter
But idk. My approach these last couple months has basically been to remove all the pressure, and instead focus on just getting consistent and relaxed. And goooooo figure, it's resulting in... a relaxed horse who is consistently responsive.
cookies for a good girl <3
We legit aren't doing anything any different in terms of specific activities. If anything, we're doing **less** when it comes to stuff like jumping course work or cantering fences and what have you...
doozy's new friends kept her entertained while i was away in Seattle!
But idk. It feels nice. Feels easy, predictable, routine.
first ride back, after legit 10 days off, and we braved the great wide open to survey her #FutureLunch
Not gonna lie, for months last winter and this past spring, it took more effort than I was entirely willing to admit to swing a leg over every day. And not bc I don't enjoy the horse -- I definitely like her very much. But every ride was So. Hard. It felt like it took so much concentration, so much focus, so much more attention to little details in posture and tension... It was exhausting and kinda a demoralizing spotlight on my diminished skills.
lol and she pulled a shoe, WHOOPS. our companion was able to retrieve it for us tho!
The slightest loss of my balance wreaked allllll kinds of havoc. The mare didn't go straight, popped shoulders every which way, spurted off into canter at the slightest provocation.
And I had zero tools other than trying to just strongarm her into obedience. Which... is itself 100% a losing proposition. Y'all read the posts, saw the pictures, watched the videos. You know what I'm talking about LOL.
"you should throw a shoe too!!!" -- Doozy, for sure
But idk. It feels like we've turned a corner. Maybe it's just the natural byproduct of time spent together.... that whole pottery analogy thing I shared earlier this month... It might be, tho, that moving farms was just the shot in the arm we needed.
flat tire didn't slow this one down tho!
The move has kinda given me the space to back off from any goals or pressures around performance expectations etc while we settled in... while also giving me a fresh start at being and presenting myself in a new place. If that makes sense.
but, eh, looks like another few days out of service, womp womp!
Doozy and I went to our first few events together last spring in a somewhat slapdash (ahem) fashion. It was wonderful and invigorating and proved to myself that, yes! we can do this!
But I'm equally excited to put together a little fall season that maybe will have a slightly different feeling to it. Not bc we'd necessarily perform any better (obvi). But bc it just feels like we have so many more tools in place, and are on much more established footing.
Well. Ahem. If she can keep her shoes tied for more than 3wks!! Horses, amirite?
Oh Charlie.... He's lucky he's so loveable, guys, bc he is absolutely the most colossal pest, I swear to god.
"i am innocent." -- charlie, probably "but also, never leave me again!!"
I always semi-dread work trips and time away from home bc it's always a fairly safe bet that Charlie will do something massively destructive and attention-seeking in my absence.
i spent the week in seattle for work! view from my hotel room did not suck
Luckily, the folks at his new farm are legitimately wonderful barn mates and excellent horse people. Plus, obviously Charlie has everybody wrapped around his little finger hoof. So I knew they'd be able to manage whatever he threw at them.
it was a promising start to the week for charlie too, tho he immediately threw a shoe...
But oh lawd, he threw some stuff. First was a shoe, on day 1 of a 6 day trip. Obviously. And when that didn't bring me running back, homeboy went straight up apocalyptic on day 3.
things escalated quickly tho....
Literally as my barn manager watched, Charlie bolted down his dinner with such manic violence that he immediately started choking. And y'all already know him well enough to believe the rest.
Trying to fling himself upon the ground, retching, snot-rocketing everywhere, acting like he was going to DIE, right then and there that very instant!
the face of a horse who requires your full attention pls
So ya know. Cool, bro, cool. Barn manager called my vet (emergency call, after hours, natch), then called me and obvi I gave her the green light to trust her judgement with whatever she and the vet thought he needed.
he's lucky the new barn family finds him endearing lol
Tho. Uh, Charlie continued with his little temper tantrum bc then, to his horror, all the rest of the horses started getting turned out after they finished their dinners (having eaten like normal upstanding citizens, ahem).
Mr. King of the Dings over here ascribes to a lifestyle that includes maximal turn out with minimal riding (just unsound enough, ya know?), so when he realized his latest ding would keep him inside to wait for the vet, he ***immediately*** gulped down his choke and was like JUST KIDDING GUYS HAHAHA!!
"honestly i just really missed seeing you!!" -- charlie, to his most favoritest vet, who got there just in time for him to clear his own self out.... it's ok tho, bro, i'm sure that sweet nose pet was worth the emergency farm call fee haha!
This horse, I swear. He really is a LOT. Like, realistically, last time he choked, the vet and I stayed in constant contact and determined that she'd come see him if he didn't clear within an hour. At which point she'd want to tube and administer antibiotics and all the things.
But ya know. With being out of town and all that, it made a lot more sense to just marshal the troops immediately and not risk any unnecessary fuckery...
looking forlorn when he didn't get any good drugs out of the deal
As it was, there wasn't much for the vet to do when she arrived other than pet his nose (possibly the horse's secret ulterior motive anyway) and advise my barn manager to transition Charlie back to soaked meals.
the truth and nothing but the truth
So, eh, Charlie then went ahead and threw his other shoe. Bc why not, right???
thanks charles. not sure how the farrier's gonna be able to nail anything to that situation ugh...
In the world of Charles, everybody gets punished when he's sad and lonely!! He's like that tragic toxic ex who starts firing off clingy misspelled drunk texts after exactly 1.5 light beers...
"no regerts" --- charlie, 1,000%
That's all part of his charm, I guess, it's why we love him.... He's definitely a character haha. Neurotic and a little weird... but lovable all the same.
meanwhile, literally every update from Dooz Land looked like this, good girl
Tho, uh, cough cough.... I'm also immensely grateful for the *other* critter haha, who is, by all accounts (and despite her somewhat chaotic nature) extremely normal.
She spent her entire vacation head down + eating, based on the pics I got LOL, and had the decency to wait to throw a shoe until I was home again, midway through our first ride back. Natch, bc she is, after all, still a friggin horse ugh lol.
this is why we can't have nice things...
Never a dull moment, I guess!! Hope you all had a nice and less dramatic week!!
Somehow I managed to miss commemorating Doozy's actual one year anniversary since coming home.... It was technically last Friday, whoops!
amazing how easy it is to get the correct lead when the horse is balanced and straight lol
It's been a very different first year with her, compared to Charlie. And maybe on paper, it doesn't look like we've "accomplished" much. Except... I'm actually honestly really happy with how the mare is developing.
learning to half halt
We have had to learn a LOT of soft skills together. Lots and lots of trust building. Day after day of going through the motions. Everything always felt so hard with this mare. Hand walking. Leaving the pasture after joining a new herd. Riding outside. Just like, trotting.
trying to find moments of soft release
She's honestly kinda redefined the idea of "patience" for me. Bc it just felt like this giant mountain of "basics" that we had no choice but to overcome. And realistically, we're still in the land of basics. Except... Suddenly, the horse is so ready for it. It doesn't feel so hard anymore.
this horse is such a trier it's not even funny
I legit had to race out the door after my last work call, arrived at Doozy's barn with just enough time to yank her from her paddock and go directly onto the trailer (which I'd packed the night before), then get to this week's lesson with Dom with just enough time to tack up for our turn.
And Doozy was completely unruffled, good girl.
walkin like a boss
We spent the warm up phase of the lesson working on melting into the half halts. Working primarily on a 20m-ish circle, Dom instructed me to sit an extra beat (ie, change my post) about every 12 or so steps. But softly. Slower, softer, in such a way that the extra beat of sitting felt smooth and relaxed vs bouncy or jarring. Then increase the frequency to about every 6 steps.
He wanted it to feel like in that extra sit beat, the horse could exhale and I could release. Essentially, creating the half halt. And he wanted me to be more disciplined to wait it out, get all the way there --- don't get 75% of the way to the trot I want, the softness I want, and give up.
i know it's hard to see -- but there are three sets of white standards (we're at the middle element) with little bounce Xs
Once the moments were really good and soft, he had us transition to canter. And same idea -- find moments to soften and release the contact on more or less a 20m circle.
In our last lesson he had us halting straight in a soft gentle polite manner after ground poles, and then wanted us to remember that transition feeling once we moved to the jumping. This time was basically the same -- except instead of a full halt, we would be focusing on using that melt-y exhale-y half halt to ease our way around.
relaxed between trips
I still about choked when he started us immediately through a bounce exercise tho haha. But it was fine -- three small Xs in basically the same configuration that we've been doing as ground poles for weeks and weeks. Doozy understood the assignment and happily stepped right through.
bounces the other way! also lol @ the little filler panels "watching" us
Dom advised to hold on for that last step of trot, not to give in too early, and that this would help us get the correct lead through the exercise. We kinda just circled around repeating the exercise a few times off each direction, and honestly I am so impressed with how patient Doozy stayed the whole time!
jumping out in the open!!
Then it was onto some modified course work. Still trotting into everything, planning down transitions and turns carefully.
omg it's an oxer haha
We started with the bounces, then sorta just swept around to catch a few singles (including some without placing poles on takeoff omg) all around the arena.
and another oxer!! this time with a cross front and low vertical back rail (and a takeoff pole to help us)
And I'm proud to say I didn't have any serious bloopers this week, yay me! Still a couple fences where I maybe gave in a step too soon (like the oxer above), and Dom still wants to see me keep my hands lower (with a taller upper body) when I'm trying to slow the mare down.
we repeated the course twice to reinforce the learnings
But overall the little course rode pretty well for us! We repeated it again a second time just to really prove the concept to the mare.... And guys, she really got it!
such a star <3 <3
She's such a cool horse, she wants to be good, she wants it to be comfortable, and she likes being right lol. Plus, she's so forward thinking --- she has plenty of desire and more than enough engine.
this is me, trying so hard not to tip inward lol
The feeling I'm getting from jumping her now is lightyears away from even just a few months ago. Like my biggest fears have been worrying about shutting her down too much bc I couldn't channel all that energy. Or, on the flip side, letting her devolve into a frantic out-of-control maniac....
what a good patient mare!
Rides like this give me hope tho that we're on the right track -- that she's learning the skills and beginning to understand the game.
wheeeee!!
I just wish it was a little easier to keep the momentum going haha, ya know? But bc life is the way it is, it'll probably be another 4wks until the next clinic at this venue, womp. Tho maybe we'll be able to sneak in a trip up to PA in the meantime. It's annoying to have to drive so far for just a lesson but c'est la vie, right?
It'll all work out one way or another hopefully. Probably lol. In the meantime, I really appreciate that these lessons build off very simple exercises and constructions that I can keep working on at home.
visiting with the adorable minis before going home <3
Plus, there's local trainer KGK to help us fill the gaps and get our reps in. One day at a time, right?
